The Story Behind Swan Apothecary. Herbal Medicine, Family Roots & Natural Healing with Robin Swan

In this deeply personal and enlightening episode of High on Home Grown, Tommy Chong sits down with Robin Swan, founder of Swan Apothecary, to explore the rich ancestral roots of herbal medicine and cannabis healing. Robin shares how her Persian, Armenian, and Eastern Band Cherokee heritage shaped her life’s work, revealing that both her grandmothers practiced cannabis medicine—her Persian grandmother using concentrated tars and oils, and her Native American grandmother using wild hemp in traditional recipes like the legendary 'grease salad.' Robin recounts growing up immersed in this legacy, learning extraction techniques from her grandmother as a child, and later discovering through a family history book that her lineage has been rooted in healing, midwifery, and herbalism for centuries—some lineages tracing back to the Sumerians. She emphasizes that cannabis is not a party drug but a sacred medicine, and she champions low-THC, full-spectrum, non-decarboxylated formulations, including raw cannabis juicing, which she believes is a powerful, non-psychoactive way to deliver medicine. She also discusses the importance of humility, integrity, and sustainability in cannabis and psilocybin practices, warning against the dangers of unregulated extractions and scams while advocating for education and community-based healing. The conversation expands into the broader cultural and systemic challenges facing natural medicine, including the stigma around cannabis, the impact of prohibition, and the conflict between pharmaceutical interests and grassroots healing. Robin shares her vision for a future where backyard medicine makers and small-scale formulators are supported, not replaced, by industry, and she highlights the importance of preserving traditional knowledge. She also touches on the spiritual and neurological benefits of psilocybin, particularly for trauma and neuroplasticity, and encourages listeners to grow their own plants and mushrooms as a path to empowerment and connection with nature. Ultimately, Robin’s story is one of ancestral wisdom, resilience, and reverence for the plant, reminding us that healing has always been part of our human story.